


All Along the Watchtower (Pacific Rim AU)

by Ambrosia



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Green Arrow (Comics)
Genre: AU in which mostly everybody is alive don't look at me like that, Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, F/M, Pacific Rim AU, as if you didn't need an Arrow/Pacific Rim AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-21
Updated: 2014-05-15
Packaged: 2018-01-20 02:57:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1494073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ambrosia/pseuds/Ambrosia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A calm silence filled the lift. It took approximately sixty seconds for them to get up to the Watchtower, but it seemed like an eternity. And Felicity started an inner monologue that would have dwarfed the best super villains. Was it uncomfortable?<br/>Was it awkward? Oh, god, it was probably awkward.<br/>(Or, That One Time Felicity Smoak Designed Oliver Queen's Jaeger)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. That One Time Felicity Smoak Built a Jaeger

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: The location of Starling City has, in canon, literally been all over the US. It’s been on the Great Lakes, on the East Coast, the West Coast. So for this particular setting, we are going to pretend that Starling City is in the San Francisco Bay Area.  
> (Also because there wouldn’t really be any Kaiju activity on the East Coast).  
> [tumblr](http://www.valorious.tumblr.com)

 

You woulda never expected the Stardome to become a critically acclaimed Shatterdome. Well, it was mostly due to the fact that Trespasser had taken out most of San Francisco and the surrounding bay. There wasn’t much left in post-2014 apart from a swell of Kaiju Blue and the ruins of an area that once housed approximately fifteen million. 

Long story short, Starling City, three hours north of the landfall of Trespasser was suddenly the largest defensible port in the area. 

At least that’s what the boring drill sergeants rattled off when you first arrived. If Felicity knew anything, it’s that the military knew how to babble off facts that literally no one needed to know. 

The Stardome, though, remained to be one of the best privately-funded Shatterdomes on the Pacific Line, all thanks to Starling City’s megafamily, the Queens. Formerly of Queen Consolidated. 

Queen Consolidated’s science division had once helped found the Jaeger Program, which included Drift Technology, which was the exact technology that Felicity Smoak kinda, sorta, sold her soul to. Happily, of course. 

Most nights, Felicity Smoak would have been asleep at some point during the night, but for no particular reason, apart from the fact that she had somehow sleep-engineered the newest upgrade for the Queen’s Gambit and was now trying to reverse-engineer it to see what the hell her line of thought had been, she was oddly, still awake. 

Even though it was past three and she was going to have to be awake in a little less than three hours. 

“Not like it’ll be the first all-nighter,” she said aloud in her workshop, which was dark apart from her workstation. 

And the whole all-nighter thing was regrettable, really, considering her nearly fourteen hour workload and the unfortunate goop they served down in the Muck that somehow passed for coffee. 

Even though it probably wasn’t simpatico with the human digestive track. 

Felicity drummed her fingers along her interactive interface, turning her newest design from side to side. She rubbed her eyes in frustration. The design included a new, long range weapon system for the Queen’s Gambit that would practically revolutionize J-TECH, but it just _wasn’t_ viable. 

The biggest problem, aside from all the other theoretical problems that she could come up with, was that any other Jaeger apart from the Queen’s Gambit, couldn’t be adapted to this new design. 

Not to mention the fact that the ammunition was non-renewable. Once the shots were fired, the shots were fired. 

Could she somehow engineer a plasma cannon? Did that technology even exist yet?

But before Felicity could even sit in front of her workstation and put her head on the table to grumble and complain to the open emptiness, the Stardome woke up beneath her feet. 

The auxiliary lights switched on, drowning the entire lab in vibrant, flickering orange lights. And the summer camp wake-up horn alarm from hell reverberated through the metal walls. 

Felicity pushed the comm into her ear. 

“Talk to me, BG,” Felicity sighed over the blaring of the alarms. 

“Hey, Lissa,” Barbara Gordon’s low, tired voice came back through her ear. “Just got word from the Icebox. Category 3, looks like, about two hours away from the Russian coast at the speed it’s traveling.”

Felicity pulled up the alert at her station in J-TECH, not even bothering going down to LOCCENT. She had everything she needed here. “Are they sending out the Kaidanovskys?”  

There’s a moment of silence over the comms, but Felicity could hear the background chatter of LOCCENT behind Barbara’s tapping away at her holoscreen. 

Felicity tracked the alarms going off on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. If it was confirmed that the Kaiju was headed towards Russia or China they’d come down off Level 5 alerts, but still. She had no doubt that the entire Stardome was awake already, even as the alarms in her ear lessened. 

Might as well start the work day. 

A new voice came over the comms, but it was distinctly male. “Felicity! My life and my legacy, how are you?”

Her fingers momentarily stopped tapping away at her keyboard. It was four in the morning and she was severely lacking coffee, but Tommy Merlyn didn’t show any signs of being human like the rest of them. “Mr. Merlyn.” 

“Ouch, Tommy boy,” said Barbara. 

“‘Mr. Merlyn’?” asked Tommy in her ear, but Felicity tried to ignore him and concentrate on the keys beneath her fingers. It barely worked. “Baby, I’m hurt, I’m crushed, my soul’s aflame.” 

From within her ear there came a sound like someone being smacked. It could have been Barbara, to be fair, but Felicity had the sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t the case. Besides, Barbara remained as always in LOCCENT at her workstation and Tommy Merlyn wouldn’t go within a hundred yards of Colonel Lance who’d made it his command station. 

“Tommy, for once in your damn life, _shut up_ ,” came a new voice. It was one Felicity recognized. 

And it was a voice that sounded like he, too, had been dragged out of bed at an ungodly hour and hadn’t had her fortune of planned all-nighters. There was a roughness to his already rough voice.

“Good morning, Mr. Queen.” 

If, and only _if_ , her sleepy brain was much more awake than it had been, well. She’d take that secret to her undoubtedly Kaiju-filled grave. 

“Good morning, Miss Smoak.” 

“I wasn’t aware that the Queen’s Gambit had been activated and cleared for standby,” she said, smiling. Felicity didn’t even need to pull the info up on her monitors. Any such order would have been at least passed to her through Barbara as it came down from Marshal Digg. 

“Don’t worry,” Tommy said in response to the groan that came through the comms. “Ollie here ain’t a morning person, give him a bit of time.” 

There was another sound of someone being hit, and Felicity smiled. 

In fifteen minutes all of Stardome was awake and working, engineers heading to her own J-TECH or to the launch bays, the science teams heading to K-SCIENCE if they likewise hadn’t been there all night like she had been. 

The only variable was LOCCENT, which was always fully staffed in three shifts of eight hours apiece. With the exception of Barbara, of course, who sometimes worked triple shifts. At least until Dick Grayson wheeled her out and dumped her in bed. 

It was a very disturbing thing to wake up to, you know, in the girl’s quarters at one in the morning. 

The alarm for the lift heading to J-TECH’s level went off, and a new window popped up in the corner of the screen all the way to the right of her workstation. Felicity saw who it was and actually plunked her head down on her arm. 

“He brings gifts, baby,” said Merlyn. “Will you let us in, pretty please?”

It was too early. And it was too far a walk down to the Muck to get that sorry ass excuse for coffee. 

But she buzzed them in, like the fool she was. And she was a J-TECH Officer, not a saint. She wanted to know what he meant by ‘gifts’. 

The lift opened, revealing two large men in plain old flight suits and standard issue boots. One was, of course, Tommy Merlyn, though he was nearly a head shorter than his companion, with a boyish face that charmed the new women in Stardome and made the veterans just roll their eyes. 

The other was Oliver Queen, yes, _the_ Queens, of Queen Consolidated, eldest child of Secretary General Queen. A prince of the PPDC if there ever was one. 

And, of course, Felicity shared the female’s quarters with Thea Queen, so the illusion, though a very, very pretty one, had somewhat been shattered after her first six months or so as head of the Queen’s Gambit project. 

Also, Sara Lance got chatty when she drank about her old high school flame. 

Felicity really had more information about Oliver Queen than she would need in several different lifetimes, which really, seriously, did not help the fact that she seemed to babble more when she was nervous. 

“I hope you mean ‘gifts’ like, I don’t know, rare jewelry, or chocolate, or maybe some decent shampoo, and not ‘gifts’ like you busted the interface in the pit of the Queen’s Gambit again, because really, that wasn’t an easy fix. I don’t want to have to climb into the head of that thing again, that wasn’t fun.”

Only when her babbling was done did Felicity look down to Oliver’s hands and said, “Is that _coffee_.” 

Not a question, but discovering a precious possession that was worth more in the Stardome than a nice red lipstick and that was like finding a needle. In a mountain of needles. With a pair of tweezers. Via blackmail. 

“Is it?” Oliver asked, feigning surprise. “You know, I hadn’t even noticed.” 

He moved the hand holding the coffee left, Felicity’s head followed him perfectly. He raised it above his head, she got on her tippy toes, eyes fixed upon it. “Oh my god, that’s not the motor oil they serve down in the Muck, either, that’s actual, _ground_ coffee.” 

“If I had known coffee was your buy price I would have bought you some a long time ago,” Merlyn said. “And by buy price I mean bribe price.”

“You couldn’t afford her,” said Barbara through the comms. 

“Extortion?” Tommy asked the ceiling, even though Barbara was technically beneath them. 

“Oh, jesus,” Barbara said. “She’s so good it’s _boring_.” 

“Oliver,” Felicity said, still dumbstruck by her recently realized greatest desire. “Oliver where did you even manage to get your hands on that.”

“I’m not sure you’ve noticed, Miss Smoak, but that is kinda my name lit up on top of the Stardome.”

Felicity was, at that point, standing on her tippy toes and sniffing at the cup in Oliver’s hand. The Muck wasn’t exactly the best smelling place on the planet, and usually they were just grateful for something warm, but Felicity had actually forgotten the smell of ground coffee. 

“Has anyone else noticed that she only calls him by his first name when he brings bribes?” Tommy Merlyn asked to the room at large. “Oh, it’s just me, perfect.” 

Oliver laughed and moved the coffee again. 

“I’ll kill you,” Felicity whispered. “Give me the fucking coffee.” 

“Since you asked so nicely,” said Oliver, carefully transferring the coffee from his big hands to her smaller once. Felicity exhaled and sank back into the chair at her station and was completely pacified. 

“You know, I leave the two of you alone for like five minutes and everything goes to shit,” said Merlyn from over by Roy Harper’s station in the corner.

Oliver immediately tensed up, blocking Tommy from Felicity’s line of sight as she held it between her hands as if she could steal the rich flavor and warmth into her own body, somehow. 

“It’s nothing,” Oliver said innocently. 

“Oh, is that what nothing is these days? I didn’t get the memo.” 

Felicity didn’t even hear, too busy sipping real, actual coffee and on cloud nine. 

“Oh, merciful caffeine god of procrastination, it’s been a long time,” Felicity said, rubbing her hands along the cup. 

The lift buzzed again, but Felicity didn’t have to let them in this time. Usually that meant that whoever was trying to get in had their own personalized entry code. 

“Mornin’, Mr. Queen, Mr. Merlyn,” said Roy Harper as he pushed past them with his arms full of scrap metal. 

“Mr. Harper,” chorused the Queen’s Gambit Jaeger Pilots. 

“Roy!” Felicity said. His eyes snapped to her possibly unusually happy tone. Not that she wasn’t a happy person, but it _was_ approximately five thirty in the morning. “You gotta come have some of this coffee.” 

“Wait, hold up,” said Tommy. “Why does he get coffee, but I don’t get coffee. Why am I not getting any coffee. Felicity, my sole joy on this earth, how can you have betrayed me in this manner?” 

Felicity saw Oliver’s gaze land on Tommy and saw how he arranged his handsome features into a look that clearly said ‘as if you don’t have that all the time’. 

Felicity sipped at her coffee while Oliver stuck his hands in his jumpsuit pockets. The coffee significantly improved her energy level, and with her energy level, her mood. Making it through another fourteen hour day didn’t seem like such a mountain. 

“So,” Felicity said, finally, legs crossed at her chair at her station. She turned to the two Jaeger Pilots and leveled a stare at them that had frightened PPDC Colonels. “I take it you two are here for more than bribing me with coffee?” 

Oliver’s face went utterly blank, but Tommy, as always, caught the slack. “Who, us? We’d never do something so—”

Felicity blinked very slowly. 

“Yeah, okay, so we might have heard that you had your new plans approved by Marshal Digg already and are soon to start implementation and we were kinda, sorta, maybe a little bit curious about the changes and we kinda, sorta, maybe, wanted to come down here and have a look.” 

For a moment, Felicity thought he meant the new plans that she had been figuratively arm-wrestling with in a seedy bar in Iowa and losing badly to, but then she remembered that those plans were stored on her own private server. And the only plans she had recently sent to Diggle were the plans for the new joint enforcements that would make the Queen’s Gambit punch all the harder. 

“Pretty please?” Merlyn asked, clasping his hands in front of him like a choir boy. 

Felicity laughed. Like, really laughed, as she hadn’t in a while. You didn’t laugh, much, being the right hand of a PPDC Marshal and being expected to keep everybody in line and find enough food that wasn’t there and enough scrap metal to keep repairing and rebuilding three hundred foot giant robots that somehow managed to keep getting beat up by giant pre-fried shrimp.

“Well, if that was all,” Felicity started to say. She wouldn’t normally fall for Tommy Merlyn’s smolder, but it was something in the way that Oliver Queen’s face lit up with something close to excitement that made her change her mind. 

But her interface beeped. 

She sighed, turning away. “Hold that thought,” pointing in Merlyn’s direction as she flipped one of her three personal comm channels from de-active to active, “Babs?” 

“Not that I’m your personal messenger, which I must reiterate, I am not,” came Barbara’s voice. “Though to be frank this place wouldn’t have the tech capabilities of a goddamn copy machine without me.” 

“No one’s ever said otherwise, Babs,” Felicity deadpanned. 

“Well that would be because it’s true,” said Barbara. “Marshal wants you up in the Watchtower. Didn’t say why. Sounded kinda serious.” 

Felicity frowned and turned back to the others in J-TECH. Tommy wasn’t even paying attention, but Oliver had his head tilted slightly in her direction like he sometimes did when he was thinking or trying to listen. “Let ‘em know I’ll be up in a minute.”

The line went silent again, so Felicity detached her comm from her interface and switched on the mobile mode. All of the Stardome, right in her ear when she needed it. 

“Please let him walk you to the Marshal before he starts wringing his hands,” said Barbara in her ear on their own private channel. “Or not, because I’ve got the live feed and it’s kinda hilarious to watch.”

“Hush,” Felicity hissed into the comm line and put a few fingers to her forehead. 

Digg never summoned her up to the Watchtower this early in the morning, but, so was the life of selling her soul to the Stardome. At least she could take the coffee with her. 

But Felicity managed to rise up out of her chair and untangle herself from her desk. Her jacket had been resting on the back of her chair, but now that she thought about it she was still in the outfit she had been wearing yesterday. 

Maybe after her meeting with Digg, Felicity might find fifteen minutes to dash through the shower and grab a clean jumpsuit. “Sorry, boys,” Felicity said, sidestepping around Tommy Merlyn and his soul-crushed expression. “As soon as I’m free later, I promise, but you know how it goes. Marshall calls, you gotta go.” 

“But, upgrades,” Tommy said. 

“I could show em’ the new plans, Miss Smoak,” Roy said from his own workstation that mostly had half-finished projects that he fiddled with when he wasn’t helping with the fabrication units down in the launch bay. 

“Upgrades!” Tommy agreed. Felicity would have absolutely not been surprised if Merlyn had jumped up and down and clapped his hands, but Roy’s plan had worked. Merlyn was distracted enough to make her escape into the lift. 

But not before Oliver Queen stepped in next to her. “I hope you don’t mind,” he said quickly. “Marshall Digg wanted to speak to me at my earliest opportunity, as well.” 

Felicity looked up to what she knew to be the camera in the lift, knowing that a very smarmy redhead in a wheelchair was likely watching their every move from LOCCENT. Goddammit, Babs. 

Years ago, before the Kaiju, Felicity would have had something along the lines of a nice pair of heels, an up-do and a pencil skirt. Now she had standard PPDC jumpsuits, standard issue lace-up shoes, and a threadbare jacket that was the very last article of clothing she had from the old life. 

She’d once asked Sara Lance to find her some mascara on the underground market within the Stardome and had discovered that it’d cost her about six month’s worth of pay. 

So obviously she let the dark bags underneath her eyes serve as her eyeliner. And coffee, lots of coffee. 

Boy, what Felicity wouldn’t give to see a nice, vivid shade of lipstick again. 

But trying to put her train of rambling back on track, Felicity said, “Nah, it’s no problem.” 

As the lift’s doors creaked shut, they had a nice view of Merlyn playing with her interface and swiping through half the designs that she had sent to Diggle. 

“One of these days,” Felicity said. “You and I are gonna sit down with a bottle of wine and you are gonna tell me exactly what his deal is.” 

Oliver laughed, but turned it into a cough and redid his very proper stance. “I’m not sure there’s enough wine in the world.” 

Felicity smiled. “Well, Mr. Queen, I’m sure your vast family fortune has as good a chance as any as finding out.” 

There was a beat of pause. A million thoughts ran through Felicity’s head, everything between wondering if she _could_ actually engineer some type of plasma cannon, because that would be freakin’ awesome, to wondering when the last time she had a decent, not ninety second shower was. 

“He doesn’t bother you, does he?” Oliver asked. “Tommy, I mean, if he puts you out of your comfort zone—”

Felicity put her hand up, trying to stop this gigantic disaster train way before it left the station. No, she knew what being out of her comfort zone was like, Tommy Merlyn was not one of them. “Oh, no, it’s completely fine. And if he did I have ways of making his life a living hell, so. There’s that.” 

Oliver nodded. He swallowed, too, but stepped right back into that military stance of his that he preferred. 

“Thanks, though,” Felicity said after a split second pause. “I mean, for caring about that kind of stuff.” 

And oddly enough, since the Jaeger Program, that kinda thing had decreased.

A calm silence filled the lift. It took approximately sixty seconds for them to get up to the Watchtower, but it seemed like an eternity. And Felicity started an inner monologue that would have dwarfed the best super villains. Was it uncomfortable? 

Was it awkward? Oh, god, it was probably awkward. 

She drummed her fingers against her legs, heartbeat equally racing, and Felicity hated herself a little bit more. Seriously, she was the lead J-TECH officer of a world famous Jaeger project that helped revolutionize the war against the Kaiju. 

She shouldn’t have freakin’ sweaty palms. 

But Felicity looked over to Oliver to see if he was waiting for her to say something, but found that he was doing that thing he did. Like he was happy just standing next to her. 

And smiling. That smile wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t. There had to be some sort of rule somewhere that made that smile a violation. 

But then Oliver turned and Felicity had to look away, make like she was watching the number on the screen above their heads as it climbed. 

Felicity took a moment to thank whichever god was the god of Jaegers that her involvement in the Drift program hadn’t actually ended up making her a Jaeger Pilot, because then she might have had the opportunity to drift with Oliver Queen and that would have been _mortifying_. 


	2. That One Time Felicity Smoak helped Develop the Drift System

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And Felicity was frazzled. There were only so many times she could put her hair up in the same ponytail that she had used for four years, only so many times she could straighten out her only unique article of clothing. 
> 
> “My kingdom for a hair straightener,” she mourned. 
> 
> Barbara, who was next to Felicity but sat at roughly half her height, had thick, slightly wavy hair. “I swear, if I see you touch your hair one more time you are gonna pull back some missing fingers.”

“Secretary General Queen has just informed us that she plans on attending the next inspection personally,” Marshall Digg said. 

There were three different reactions from three different people in the room. Felicity was the first one and she actually dropped her tablet on the floor’s cool metal. Oliver stiffened, something that Felicity saw in the line of his back. Colonel Lance remained the most neutral out of the three of them. 

But John only spared a half second on her dropped tablet. “Sir, we have an inspection in the next few days,” Felicity reminded him. 

“I’m aware, Miss Smoak,” he said kindly. “Which is why I had the three of you trek all the way up here.” 

She turned to Oliver. “I don’t suppose there’s any way she’s just using the inspection as a reason to see her children, is there?” 

Oliver grimaced. “Not very likely, no.” 

Well, shit. That usually meant that something was wrong. 

Digg watched them all carefully. “From her memo I think she means to come and discuss new opportunities in the Drift Program.” 

“Oh,” Felicity said. 

At the same time, Colonel Lance said, “The Drift Program?”

Digg nodded. “That’s what it said.” 

“Why would Moira Queen want to come _here_ to discuss the Drift Program,” Lance asked, with maybe not the level of respect that should be given to a Secretary General of the PPDC. But the feud between the Queens and the Lances went way back, or so the gossip in the girl’s quarters said. “Shouldn’t she be speaking to old professors in Boston?”

“Uh, me,” Felicity interrupted. 

The entire room turned to look at her, and Felicity had never felt like she wanted the whole goddamn room to open up and swallow her more. 

Amidst the utter silence, Felicity said, “I might have been involved with the Drift Program when it was being developed.” 

“What?” asked Oliver. 

Felicity didn’t want to look at Oliver, at that moment, but she didn’t want to look at the Marshall _or_ Colonel Lance, either. She was left with very little option but to stare at her tablet as it lay on the floor. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Oliver asked. 

Felicity didn’t get the chance to answer. 

It was Digg who spoke up, above Lance’s and Oliver’s separate questions. “Moira Queen is under the impression that you were one of the main members of the Drift team.” 

Felicity had to discreetly try to swallow her fist and bite on the inside of her cheek. Oh, they were misinformed. Oh, they were _so_ misinformed. “That’s certainly a different story than I heard.” 

“Miss Smoak,” Digg said. She might have been wrong, but she could swear she heard a bit of hysterical edge to his voice, which significantly increased her building anxiety. 

Felcity sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and having to fight a boiling frustration in her gut. “The Drift Project stalled, okay? It was after, after we figured out that one pilot didn’t have the neural capability to command thirty thousand pounds of metal and machinery. But they moved on to identical twins, and when they ran out of those, they moved on to fraternal twins.”

No one said anything, so she continued. “They stalled for almost six months because of a lack of volunteers or those who passed the drift requirements. Nobody stopped and figured out that the Drift system isn’t just one of genetic compatibility, but of personality.” 

Oliver’s jaw was slightly slack and she couldn’t even tell what Colonel Lance was thinking, but Marshall Digg was looking at her with an amused sort of expression. “Miss Smoak, I don’t suppose you were the one to point this out to them.” 

She pushed her glasses up her nose. 

Digg dragged a hand over his face, “You know, I’m almost more worried now that I know this.”  

The Marshall pushed his chair back and stepped around his desk so that he could get closer to the three of them. Felicity blinked, blowing air out of her nose.

Marshall Digg moved closer to her and asked in a low voice, “How old were you, when this happened?”

“Eighteen when the program started,” Felicity said, flexing her hands against her biceps.“Twenty by the time it finished.” 

He seemed to think, for a moment or two. Felicity noticed that his good military jacket was strung over the back of his chair. Apparently she and the Marshall had both intended to pull all-nighters, though she had much easier access to the girl’s quarters for quick naps, should she need them. 

“For now,” Digg said. “I’m pleased that we have more of an idea on what the reasoning behind attention from the Queens. Lance, I’d like LOCCENT to do full runs through the monthly checklist, yes, I am aware that we just did them. Mr. Queen, I’d like you and the other Pilots to help get this place running as well as it can.” 

Oliver and Lance both chorused, “Yes, Sir.” 

“Miss Smoak, as always, I’d like you to keep a leash on things,” Digg said, picking up her tablet that she had actually forgotten that she had dropped and handing it to her. 

“Always, sir,” Felicity said. 

At this point she’d be fortunate enough to quickly dip her head beneath a faucet with running water. Goodbye shower, goodbye breakfast. 

Goodbye awkwardly trying to steal more of Oliver Queen’s coffee. 

“Miss Smoak,” the Marshall called when everyone else had left and Felicity was the only person in his office. “A word, if you please.” 

Marshall Digg was not an intimidating man. Not in the usual way that she attached meaning to the word ‘intimidating’. Sure, he was huge, but he was very oddly calm, for a PPDC Marshall. He was a good boss to have, Felicity knew. “Yes, sir?” 

He came around his desk again and leaned against the side, crossed his arms and did that thing he did where he seemed to scan her soul like a barcode in a grocery store. 

He stilled. “Miss Smoak, I know that you’re aware that there has been a push recently to move military funding from the Jaeger program to the Anti-Kaiju Wall Project.”

Felicity nodded. “Yes, sir.” 

“And you know that the last two Kaiju to land were both above Category III.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

But Marshall Digg was nodding, too. He stood shoulder to shoulder with her as they looked out over the coastline and Starling City. “Tough fights, both of them. When I still ran a Jaeger the biggest thing we’d seen so far was Trespasser. Now that seems like a stuffed teddybear in the kid’s isle.”

How he made that analogy, Felicity didn’t know. She’d seen footage of Tresspasser’s attack on San Francisco, and that asshole had been as tall as the Golden Gate Bridge.  

“You never had formal training as a Jaeger engineer, did you?” Marshall Digg asked. 

Felicity winced. Four years, seven months and thirteen days she’d made it without anyone asking that question, but the boatman had finally pulled her off stage with a giant cane like in the cartoons. “…No, sir.” 

John Diggle raised his eyebrows. He was not concerned, or surprised, but impressed. 

But Felicity’s gabber could do nothing but hang open until she tried to steel herself for the worst. “I would have started my first year at MIT, sir, but, Trespasser.” 

Marshall Digg just laughed. “Dammit, Smoak. You’re the best J-TECH engineer I’ve ever seen, and it’s all because you were building computers in your room at age seven.” 

That was certainly a unique way of putting it, Felicity thought. She’d always been of the opinion that something special had to be said about her generation that when confronted with giant, terrifying sea monsters, they sat down together as a group and said, ‘we should pummel them with giant robots’. 

“How long do we have until the Secretary General arrives, sir?” Felicity asked. They had a lot of work to do in any case, the Stardome would have to be turned over a time and a half to be ready. 

“Oh, you know how the military can be,” Marshall Digg said with ease. “It’s a whole lotta hurrying up and waiting.” 

Felicity paused on her way out and turned back to him. In her best deadpan ‘I’m so completely done with everyone in this Shatterdome’ voice, she said, “So what you’re saying to me is that she _could_ be here tomorrow morning.”

“That is exactly what I’m saying to you.” 

Felicity turned back towards the door with a bit more urgency in her step. “See you on the launch bay, Marshall.” 

. .

The Category III Kaiju that had rudely distracted her from trying to design a plasma cannon system for the Queen’s Gambit popped up early Saturday morning. Moira Queen didn’t show up until Monday. 

Though frankly if you looked around the Stardome, it might appear as if the Kraken himself was about to bang on their front door. Felicity stuck close to the Marshall and the other officers of the Shatterdome. 

When the got the alerts over the comms, they all lined up to greet them: most of the officers and the Jaeger Pilots, with a few other inclusions. Felicity spotted Thea Queen standing next to her brother in the lineup. 

And Felicity was frazzled. There were only so many times she could put her hair up in the same ponytail that she had used for four years, only so many times she could straighten out her only unique article of clothing. 

“My kingdom for a hair straightener,” she mourned. 

Barbara, who was next to Felicity but sat at roughly half her height, had thick, slightly wavy hair. “I swear, if I see you touch your hair one more time you are gonna pull back some missing fingers.” 

Felicity caught a glimpse of Sara Lance just down the lineup even as she straightened her jacket and jumpsuit. Most of the women in the Stardome bunked together in the girl’s quarters, but it was mostly Thea Queen, Felicity, Babs and Sara along with a dozen others. 

And nobody really talked about Black Canary, or her only surviving pilot. 

But if Felicity chose to do so, she could go up to her workstation in J-TECH and find the old memo that said the remains of Black Canary had been stripped and divided among three other Jaegers on the Golden Mile. 

But then a large black helicopter flew over the Shatterdome behind them, and Felicity could swear that over the noise, she could hear Barbara humming the theme for the Wicked Witch, until Felicity pinched her arm. 

And personally, Felicity had never seen Moira Queen before. There was her identification picture, of course, that Felicity had seen when she had been rifling through personnel files, but those were hardly very accurate. So she was genuinely surprised when Moira stepped out of the helicopter. 

As it was traditional for a Shatterdome, it was Digg, Felicity, and Colonel Lance that greeted her first. To Digg, Moira had fond words for, so Felicity had time to notice the tiny details. 

She was immaculately put together, which was something that was damn near impossible to do post-Kaiju War. Felicity even thought she could see just a hint of makeup on Moira’s face. Well, then again, perhaps things weren’t so dire farther inland. 

But something about Moira had Felicity’s hair standing up, and it might have had something to do that she could have been an alternate reality version of her own mother. 

But then it was Felicity’s turn to be introduced, as was the protocol. “Secretary General,” Marshall Digg said. “Officer Felicity Smoak, one of our brightest.” 

In this situation, Felicity thought, both a salute and a handshake would be appropriate. And although all Shatterdomes were technically a military operation, they did less saluting and did more ‘building giant three hundred foot robots’. 

But Moira went for the handshake. She smiled, “It’s a pleasure, Miss Smoak.” 

“And you, Secretary General.” 

After which Felicity was completely forgotten, because Oliver and Thea stepped forward. There was only so much affection you could show a commanding officer in public, but Felicity stepped back from the family affair and returned to the lineup. 

“Her shoes alone would cost me two years of pay,” Felicity heard Sara say. She had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. 

Marshall Digg and Secretary General Queen toured the different levels of the Stardome, mostly while Felicity, Oliver, Tommy, and Colonel Lance stayed a few paces in step behind them. As the afternoon dragged on, they payed less and less attention to what was being said. 

Felicity actually pulled out her tablet and started jotting ideas down for improvements she could be making to a handful of her designs. She was limited, of course, to the materials they had access to, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t give it her best shot. 

They continued that way until, finally, they retired to the top level, which was the conference hall, to eat and continue the discussions that Felicity had only been halfway paying attention to. 

“My son speaks of you quite often, Miss Smoak,” Moira Queen said, smiling across the table from Felicity, cutting Felicity’s discussion with Colonel Lance about upgrades right in half.

Felicity was quick enough to look over at Oliver and see the soup poor out of his spoon as it tilted sideways. “I did help to design your son’s Jaeger, Secretary General.” 

“Moira,” Moira insisted with a smile. “When we’re not out there, of course. I find ‘Secretary General’ is quite the mouthful for normal conversation.”

Moira smiled again and sipped more soup, but Felicity distinctly felt like she was staring down a shark. 

When it seemed like Moira was about to start up another conversation with Digg, Felicity risked a glance at Oliver, who was across from Tommy. If he knew that she was looking he didn’t give any indication, but his ears were slightly pink. 

And that just didn’t freakin’ seem fair. Felicity took a sip of soup from her bowl and when she looked back up, Oliver caught her gaze. He smiled apologetically. Felicity made a face and momentarily crossed her eyes. 

The more she thought about it though, Felicity realized that Oliver hadn’t said more than like, ten words since his mother’s arrival. Which was a shame, really. Oliver Queen was actually a good person to hold a conversation with. 

Particularly about giant robots. 

“I spent some time recently in Boston,” Moira said after her own private conversation with Lance and Digg. “There are some very exciting things happening there that I think you’ll be quite interested in, Miss Smoak.” 

Felicity put her own spoon down mid bite for the second time, feeling some crazy amount of shortness boiling beneath her skin. “I’d suppose these exciting things have to do with the Drift Team?” 

Felicity didn’t know if she managed to keep the anxiety out of her voice. She had gone for polite and respectful, but judging by the way Tommy Merlyn’s throat worked on her right, she hadn’t quite managed it. 

But Moira Queen’s smile only brightened, apparently delighted by the way that their current conversation was going. “Marshall Diggle has told me much about the work you do on the Queen’s Gambit, Miss Smoak, and I have to say that I’m very impressed.” 

Felicity put a hand on Tommy’s back and smacked him as if she would smack a child that was choking, because a noise had escaped his mouth at the sound of ‘Marshall Diggle’ that he tried to pass off as having something stuck in his throat. 

But Digg was closely examining a marking on his glass, supposedly pretending that he hadn’t heard and wasn’t going to drop kick them all in a pot of hot oil as soon as Moira and her entourage left. “Thank you,” Felicity said. 

“I mean,” started Moira again. “For someone with no formal training or degree, your work has been rather remarkable. I’m very impressed.”

The room went silent. Tommy stopped in the middle of wiping his mouth with the napkin in his lap. Felicity only managed to swallow and keep eye contact. “I’m honored that you think so, Moira.”

“Holy shit,” Tommy interjected. It was clearly an effort to alleviate the tension that had boiled into the room like it had seeped in through the vents. “I didn’t know that. Felicity, why wouldn’t you tell me something like that, aren’t I your favorite Jaeger Pilot?” 

“It’s why I mentioned being in Boston, Miss Smoak,” Moira said, plowing straight through the conversation as if she couldn’t tell that four out of the five other people at the long table weren’t suddenly on edge. Colonel Lance, of course, was stoic, as always. “One of the many reasons I came personally today, other than what’s usually on the roster, was that you’ve been offered a position on the old Drift team.” 

“No,” Felicity said automatically. She said it without thinking, without even realizing the words had come out of her mouth, but so much in her was screaming that it was the most natural thing in the world. 

No, she’d never go back. Ever. Not with Ivo. 

But she could also look at Moira’s face and see that she had said exactly the wrong thing. “I, uh, respectfully must decline the offer. Ma’am.” 

Moira’s smile didn’t waver. “Perhaps, Miss Smoak, you haven’t had the proper time to consider it. It’s quite a prestigious opportunity.” 

If Felicity’d been holding a pencil she would have snapped it, but she had to keep the false smile on her face. For once in her life, her mother had actually done her a favor. 

If there was anything her mother had been good at, it was insulting someone to their face without them realizing it. “I understand, Secretary General, and am very honored,” Felicity said to the room at large. “But my best work is done here.” 

“Think of the possibilities, Miss Smoak,” Moira said instead, as if she were speaking to a young child and not a J-TECH weapons engineer of a Shatterdome. “I’m eager to see what the Drift team will come up with this time, and it would be a rather substantial promotion for someone with your qualifications.” 

“Mother,” Oliver said hurriedly. “I’d like to speak with you. In private.” 

He put his hand on Moira’s elbow, trying to guide her out of the room, but Moira didn’t seem to notice. 

It was actually Digg that spoke up next. “You never did tell me what Ivo is up to, this time, Moira,” he said. “I read something in the grapevine about altering the genetic makeup of the Pilots instead of working on improving the Jaegers.” 

The acid that was burning her throat clashed with a rush of affection towards her boss. If they lived through this, Felicity thought, she’d find a way to get the ingredients for an actual hamburger for the Muck. 

“Mother,” Oliver tried again, but he was banished by the slightest wave of Moira’s hand. 

“I’m afraid,” said Felicity, trying to hold onto the last bit of patience she knew she had left. “It’s rather difficult to get me to change my mind once it’s made.” 

“Well,” Moira said, after a long stretch of silence. She used the napkin in her lap to dab at her still perfect lipstick. “I have to say I’m rather disappointed, Miss Smoak. Anthony spoke quite highly of your talents, and I’ve heard nothing but praise from Marshall Diggle.” 

Felicity could taste acid in her mouth. 

“You understand, Miss Smoak, that with the answer you’ve given me, I don’t feel comfortable having you in charge of the Queen’s Gambit.” Felicity felt a hand on her knee, knowing that it must be Tommy. “I’m very sorry to say, but with your lack of formal education in the field, I’m going to have to ask you to withdraw from the project and give it to someone more qualified.”

“Moira, if you’d refrain from handing out orders that I haven’t approved while we’re still eating,” Digg started. 

“Your son’s safety is to the upmost importance to me,” Felicity said. “I’m insulted that you seem to think otherwise.” 

“Moira,” Marshall Digg warned. 

“If you’ll excuse me,” Felicity managed to say, and pushed back from the table. 

Out the door, left, thirty paces. Right. Into the lift. Down to LOCCENT. Down to Babs.

Felicity wasn’t sure how she made it all the way to LOCCENT, but before she knew it, Babs had her by the hand and was yanking her right back out into the hallway. Felicity fell against the metal paneling, and started making her way back to the lift so she could get down to J-TECH.

“Dammit, girl,” Barbara said, pushing herself along. “Slow the fuck down, what happened?” 

But Felicity was having a full-blown attack. She had to get down to J-TECH. Her designs, she had to take care of them. “I just got b-banished from the Stardome. Moira Queen, she, she gave me a choice between going back with Ivo or not being here and I picked not being here.” 

Barbara was the one soul in this giant tower of metal that had an inkling of what or who Ivo was. “She did _what_ now?” 

Felicity couldn’t answer. 

“I need,” Felicity said. “I, I need my workstation. I’ll need to start re-categorizing my designs based on viability. And I suppose I’ll have to use a new numerical system to sort the data, since nobody but me will be able to make sense of it.” 

She twisted her hands and turned away, heading in the general direction of the lift and J-TECH. Her gut felt hollow. 

“Oh, for the love of, you’re a fucking idiot, Queen,” Felicity heard Babs’ voice from somewhere behind her shoulder. “Get her up to J-TECH, and for christ’s sake, don’t leave her alone. I gotta go handle this.” 

Hands were on her elbow and around her waist, guiding her in the general direction of the lift. Her own hands were shaking. 

Workstation. Into the lift. Wait sixty seconds. Turn left. Right, left again. Approximately twenty paces until she’d be at her workstation. J-TECH was empty apart from them, but Felicity didn’t really notice. She couldn’t get her brain around the idea that she wasn’t gonna _be_ here anymore. 

Felicity didn’t even realize that she already had her hands sifting through data on their servers until she noticed Oliver looking at her through her twelve monitors like she was a ghost that was stuck there. 

“You should have seen them,” Felicity said quietly, flicking files across her holoscreen as if they had done her a personal wrong, like they were harmful to the touch. “The first guys that tried commanding the Jaegers all by themselves.” 

Oliver didn’t say anything. He didn’t move, either, so Felicity didn’t look his way. She had too much to do, too much to get done, before. 

Before she had to go. “I was there.” 

Oliver’s hand was on her elbow, stopping her mid-swipe, filing away the vambraces that she had developed months ago but pushed aside in favor for focusing on longer-range capabilities. 

Sweat dripped down her forehead. “We didn’t know what would happen to them,” Felicity said. “We didn’t know. Five guys hooked up to different machines in a basement in Boston. And then one started bleeding out of his eyes. And then his nose.”

She could see the bright lights. Feel the elastic gloves on her fingers. “We thought it was a fluke, some freak accident to be studied and prevented.”

Felicity turned away from the interface, with her head hanging down and her hands on her hips. She had so much that needed to get done. Who would, who would even be able to take her place until they found someone more qualified? 

Barry might be able to make sense of her work. Roy Harper would certainly be able to understand what her intent was, but he didn’t have much interest in designing new upgrades. Babs didn’t know the tail end of a compressor from the head, her vast amounts of knowledge were mostly in computers. 

“What happened to them?” Oliver asked. “To those people.” 

Felicity smiled, a horrible, fake thing that stretched her face in a way she didn’t like. “They all died. Seizures, for a couple, that caused brain hemorrhaging.” 

She didn’t completely understand why all this was spilling out: her time with Anthony Ivo was something of the past, and it had been a stepping stone to where she had been happy. Here, the Stardome, Felicity’d been happy. Until about half an hour ago. 

Oliver was still shoulder to shoulder with her, but Felicity wanted nothing more than to wish the day away and start over, go back to coffee bribes and Barbara and Tommy snarking away and running her hands over all the threads in the Stardome and knowing how it lived and breathed. 

She cared, in a pseudo sort of way, for five hundred souls. She knew how much food they needed, and how much they were actually able to procure. She knew the inner workings of the K-SCIENCE labs just as well as she knew J-TECH. She knew how many people worked the fabrication units on the launch bays. 

And yeah, managing that much information had been a pain in her asshole, but she’d done it. Her choice. “What d’you need?” Oliver asked. 

Oliver had his arm pressed against her arm, but Felicity could see that he was flexing and unflexing his hands. She didn’t know what it meant, and didn’t really have the capacity to know what it meant at the moment, that Oliver practically had her standing within the safety of his reach. 

Felicity’s eyes were embarrassingly wet. “More time,” she sighed into her hands. “So much more time, I have no idea how I’m supposed to make sense of all my files.” 

“It doesn’t matter, Felicity,” said Oliver. His warm hands touched her shoulders. “That doesn’t matter, right now. What matters is that we take care of you.” 

“It _does_ matter!” Felicity bit. “I have to make sure that you and Tommy will be safe!” 


	3. That One Time Felicity Smoak fought a Kaiju

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I have something for you,” Oliver said. Felicity was almost asleep against his side, but his deep voice jolted her back into consciousness. “But you have to close your eyes.”  
> “Not a problem, boss,” Felicity said. “Way ahead of you.”

Barbara dragged Felicity down to her level in a death hug, the ‘Barbara Gordon special’. “You watch yourself,” Babs said into Felicity’s shoulder. “They aren’t as nice as we are out there.” 

“Don’t make me tear up in front of the others, you jackass,” Felicity said, but while her voice sounded normal, her face crumpled in pain. Losing her lab was one thing, losing Babs was another thing entirely. 

“Felcity,” Tommy started. His hands were in his pockets, a frown upon his face. “Moira didn’t actually _say_ you were banished from the Stardome.” 

But Babs pulled back and frowned too. “I’ve had dealings with Moira Queen and her kind before, she doesn’t recognize the words ‘no’ or ‘fuck off’ in her dictionary.” 

Felicity with Ivo. Barbara and the Jaeger Program and the reason why Barbara was in a wheelchair and Dick Grayson was one of the few last remaining candidates in the Stardome but couldn’t find a partner that would drift with him half as well as Barbara had.

“I have to,” Felicity said. She searched around for a concrete reason, why saying ‘no’ meant she couldn’t remain at the Stardome at all, but she had taken her stance. She’d been given the choice: Ivo or nothing, and she had jumped after nothing. “For me, I have to go.” 

“That’s the only reason why it’s being allowed at all,” Babs said seriously. “Cause it’s best for you.” 

Tommy slipped something in her hands and gave her a long, intimate hug. To anyone else, Felicity thought, it might be a hug from someone she knew and loved dearly, but they could not hear what Tommy was whispering in her ear. “If they find out I’ve given this to you, I’ll be court-marshaled. So say ‘darling’ and look like you’re upset.”

“Darling,” Felicity said into his shoulder and scrunched up her eyes like she was trying to hold back tears. 

“Best girl,” Tommy said. “It’s from Marshall Digg himself, a spare copy of your designs. Take it up north to Portland, or Seattle, or Anchorage. Any Shatterdome would be more than happy to have you. And I doubt Moira Queen’s shit would fly someplace where her name isn’t on the bank account.”

She felt the flash drive in the palm of her hand between them, but she felt a sudden, genuine rush of affection for Tommy Merlyn. Over his shoulder, she could see that Marshall Digg was suddenly very interested in the weather. “Thanks, Tommy.” 

He let go and pushed her toward the waiting helicopter. And if Felicity looked back to see that Oliver Queen wasn’t there, well, then. She kept it to herself. 

. .

 

The Kaiju War went on warring without Felicity Smoak. Her life quickly became a merry-go-round of conference calls and Shatterdome tours. Portland didn’t have a Shatterdome, just a Watchtower and pseudo command center at the north western tip of Oregon. 

She was surprised to find that not only had her reputation remained in-tact, but that in general people were more than happy for her input. 

Felicity still doodled ideas for the Queen’s Gambit on napkins and scraps of paper whenever they popped up, but she kept them to herself, trying to ignore the irritating wetness around her eyes. 

. .

**To: Marshall John Diggle, PPDC**

**From: Barbara Gordon, LOCCENT Officer**

 

Re: Queen’s Gambit

Encryption Level 9: M81EO221

Marshall, just a heads up: apparently the Queen’s Gambit right auxiliary paneling has been damaged. J-TECH said they’re sending someone down to look at it. Might have happened when the pod’s wiring snapped last week. 

It’s a shame we don’t have an expert on staff. 

Barbara

. .

 

Felicity frowned at the memo on her screen. Seattle’s J-TECH division was nothing to sneeze at, but it was no Stardome J-TECH, either. She still had three monitors to watch most of the Shatterdome’s alerts, but she itched for her design Holoscreens. 

Now, the only logical explanation as to why she was receiving a Level 9 encrypted Stardome email was that Barbara Gordon had once again hacked into her email and in doing so had broken several laws. 

Did that surprise Felicity? No, it did not. 

It wasn’t the law-breaking part that bothered Felicity. It wasn’t even the knowledge that her Jaeger, the Queen’s Gambit, was being brutalized and misused and not living up to its potential. It was the fact that this was, in fact, the _third_ memo that she had mysteriously received from one Barbara Gordon in six months. 

And all three had included details of the Queen’s Gambit suddenly needing very specific repairs. 

“She wouldn’t,” Felicity wondered aloud. But the more that Felicity thought on it, the more that Felicity could picture someone who had access to the Queen’s Gambit’s designs knowing exactly how to break it without dismantling it completely. 

Barbara Gordon had just that much of a chip on her shoulder. 

And honestly, the thought of someone trying to break the Queen’s Gambit hurt Felicity, in her soul. “Oh, she would.” 

Felicity closed the memo and shut down her screens. She wouldn’t do any good staring at it all day trying to get the image of whomever Barbara recruited to sabotage the Queen’s Gambit out of her head. 

Though more than likely it was probably Tommy Merlyn. Possibly Roy, too. 

She gathered her tablet and hopped into the lift up to LOCCENT, watching the doors that were far too advanced for her taste slide shut. 

It was easy to sometimes forget that she wasn’t in the Stardome anymore; the materials they used to build Shatterdomes were fairly similar even if the layout was slightly different. 

But she didn’t work for Marshall Digg, anymore. She didn’t have an entire floor of J-TECH essentially all to herself. She didn’t sit next to Babs and Dick and Thea Queen in the Muck anymore. 

She didn’t accept coffee bribes from Oliver Queen. 

“Good morning, Miss Smoak,” said Marshall Wilson. He was an older guy with an eyepatch, but he was pleasant enough. He used more of his authority as Marshall from within LOCCENT, which Felicity wasn’t quite used to, but she’d adapted. “Nice of you to join us.” 

“Always a pleasure, sir,” Felicity said. 

“Miss Smoak,” said Tendo Choi. 

“Mr. Choi,” Felicity returned, booting up the system in front of her and turning off the alarms. “What are we looking at, this morning?”

“Category IV, codenamed Clawhook,” the man in the bow tie said. “Showed up a little over two hours ago, we’ve already alerted the Icebox and the Stardome and have them on standby.” 

Felicity could see the alerts on her screen. All four Shatterdomes north of Mexico were on alert level 5; the Stardome, the Icebox, Los Angeles and Seattle. Constant pings going between them showed that Clawhook was being closely tracked. 

“Sir?” Felicity asked, turning back to the Marshall. “We’ve received confirmation that there are only three available Jaegers.” 

Barbara’s memo flashed through her head and Felicity felt the bottom of her stomach snap off. The repairs were something that could be done in less than fifteen minutes, but they’d remember them during the prelaunch, wouldn’t they? 

“Which three, Miss Smoak?” asked Marshall Wilson. 

“Romeo Blue, Queen’s Gambit, and Chrome Brutus.”

She tapped on the holoscreen, looking at the stats for Queen’s Gambit. Fully functional. She tried to swallow the lump that was roughly trying to stab her in the throat. 

The Marshall frowned and asked, “What about Los Angeles?” 

“One of their pilot teams was recently injured and the other Jaeger is out for repair.” 

The Marshall looked at Felicity, and then looked at Mr. Choi and the rest of the Officers in LOCCENT. Felicity knew Slade well enough that she could spot just a hint of worry in his face. “If Clawhook heads south of Starling it could be problematic.”

And if Clawhook hit smack dab in the middle of Oregon. He’d be too far from the Stardome and too far from them. 

Felicity sent alerts to Los Angeles and the Stardome, keeping up with their nearly constant communication while the other side of LOCCENT was tracking Clawhook’s location. As of then, he was moving in a zigzag formation, but fast. 

Like, airplane-speed fast.  

And it might have been awful of her, but Felicity found herself ticking off a list of places she _didn’t_ want Clawhook to land. Starling. Portland, with its city of poor and homeless that she had seen when she was there, living under the dozen bridges. 

“Mr. Choi,” said the Marshall. “Start the evacuation protocols and get the majority of the population to start heading out of the city. But don’t give them reason to panic.” 

“Yes, sir,” said Tendo. 

The Marshall headed for the lift, giving out orders as he went. Felicity kept track of him in the back of her head. Felicity pulled up the video feed of the main roads out of Seattle and found that, thankfully, people were heading out in an orderly fashion. 

The Stardome was built to withstand a Kaiju, but Seattle was little more than a commandeered building downtown that had been modified. 

Some time after the evacs protocols had been activated, there was a boom that seemed to tilt the whole room sideways. Tendo and Felicity both turned back to the monitors as the room recovered and the dust stirred in the cross breeze. 

“Oh, shit,” said Mr. Choi. 

He mirrored Felicity’s look of horror as they turned to look at each other in perfect sync. 

Felicity called after the Marshall. “Sir!” 

Her one-eyed commander turned toward her only as she skidded up to him. “Miss Smoak, what was that?” 

Running from one end of LOCCENT to another at a mad dash and only catching him as he pushed the button of the lift left her breathless, so she heaved. “Clawhook. It’s— coming right for us.” 

Slade turned his attention upward, to the ceiling. She wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but the minutes left on their timer were getting into the single digits, now. Felicity might have been rooted to the floor with the knowledge that there was about to be a giant sea monster staring into the top floor of a sky-scraper, but as it was, she was left with a bit of numbness and hands that wouldn’t stop shaking. 

“Authorize the launch of Romeo Blue,” Wilson said. He turned back toward the door at full speed, but yelled over his shoulder. “Miss Smoak, activate the relief teams and clear the ground!”

Felicity skidded over to the Drift team and pushed the launch button. LOCCENT came alive as Felicity could see the pilot’s drift status. 

But they had whole teams working in overdrive to monitor them, and it was more Tendo’s area of expertise. Well, that wasn’t exactly saying much. Felicity’s area of expertise was modifying three hundred foot giant robots, and yet here she was. 

On the screens that lined the room, Clawhook could clearly be seen climbing past the buildings closest to the shoreline. At her own station, Felicity saw the confirmation that Romeo Blue was about to make contact. 

The next fifteen minutes were the worst of Felicity’s life. She kept her attentions on the monitors, or tried to, at least, sending out notifications of movement to the helicopters so they could stay out of harm’s way. 

But even if she tried to keep her hands and eyes focused, she couldn’t help but see the utter destruction that Clawhook brought with him: he and Romeo Blue facing off like two jocks in a high school hallway. 

If the high school jock was roughly thirty thousand pounds of metal and weaponry and strong enough to knock down a building. 

Her hands shook on the console, and Felicity tried to keep herself from noticing the people unfortunate enough to be standing beneath the Kaiju and Romeo Blue. Her Marshall was down there, trying to get them out. 

“Smoak!” Tendo said. 

“I’m alerting the Queen’s Gambit to start heading north for backup,” Felicity said, typing in the alert to send to Babs. 

“But the Marshall,” Tendo started. 

She turned to him. “It’ll take two hours for the Queen’s Gambit to get here, and we might be rubble by then.”

But on the screens above their heads, they could clearly see the pod of Romeo Blue get ripped out and crushed to pieces. 

There were momentary screams of agony, and then the stats on the other side of LOCCENT that monitored brain activity and drift alignment went dark. “Oh, fuck,” said Tendo, crossing his chest and holding his rosary. 

“I’m on it,” said Felicity.

Three more booms that made the Shatterdome sway left and right. Felicity was too busy trying to input the code sequence for the Stardome.

“Seattle’s down,” Felicity said into her comm. If it was her voice that shook, or her hands, or both, she didn’t know and she frankly didn’t goddamn care. It was hard enough when the ceiling was shaking to keep talking into the comms and sending the alerts. “Romeo Blue, down. Bruce Gage, K.I.A. Trevin Gage, K.I.A.” 

The metal ceiling of LOCCENT shook and moved with her every word, very much like there was a giant swordfish-shaped sea monster standing on top of the Shatterdome and stomping his feet, but Felicity knew otherwise. That was the sound of the very tops of the highest buildings crumbling into the streets below them. 

That was the sound of debris falling, of glass shattering, of signal towers toppling off skyscrapers. 

She took a deep breath. “Seattle’s down. Send in all reinforcements. Clawhook still active.” 

. .

 

Felicity really lost about three days between point A and point B. She wasn’t actually sure how it happened. Half the defense systems in Seattle had been destroyed. It was all she could do to keep communications running for as long as possible before the reinforcements arrived and finished Clawhook. 

Felicity remembered some things, like the memo she had to send out that informed the PPDC that Marshall Slade Wilson was M.I.A. She suspected that he died in the streets of Seattle. She remembered sending the memo of incoming injuries and casualties and struggling to keep the comms running. 

She and the other officers in LOCCENT had nothing to do but keep going: to keep monitoring the situation and informing the other Shatterdomes that were now rushing to their defense. And hoping, by some cruel twist of fate, that a Kaiju didn’t come flying into the side of the Shatterdome when reinforcements _did_ arrive.

And comm systems weren’t particularly Felicity’s forte.

A few hours or days later, Felicity supposed, she remembered getting in a helicopter. She couldn’t remember what kind. Losing her lunch on said helicopter. Thankfully there had been a bag because really, on the list of things she still needed to do with her life, that hadn’t been one of them. 

But after that, it was essentially putting one foot in front of the other and trying not to vomit. Again. She couldn’t stop, because the moment she did, Felicity was sure she’d see Clawhook. And she couldn’t. Not yet. Not when she still had dust in her hair and on her face. 

That’s kinda, sorta, how Felicity ended up face to face with Oliver Queen but really being too tired and too worn out to do anything about it. 

But she did catch how Tommy Merlyn somehow developed magical powers because one moment he had been standing to Oliver’s left, as usual, and the next moment he was gone. 

“Miss Smoak,” said Oliver. 

“Mr. Queen,” returned Felicity, without any of her usual energy. 

Silence. 

Awful, awful silence, that Felicity would have happily doused with engine fluid and set on fire. 

Cause there it was. On top of everything, on watching thousands of people die and the knowledge that Oliver hadn’t come to see her when she left or tried to contact her in five months and _oh by the way_ he was the One and Only Son of Moira Queen, in case she had managed to forget. 

Felicity knew, somewhere, that the only way she and Oliver would have met in the old world was if Moira Queen had hired her to be his tutor. 

“Uhm,” came a voice that Felicity had been tuning out. “My grades weren’t actually that terrible. I mean, they weren’t particularly good, either. I just couldn’t be bothered to actually hand in the homework.” 

Between the fingers that formed a cathedral-like shape against her forehead, Felicity somehow realized that she’d gone on that little tirade in the lift with him out-loud. 

Several chemical recipes that she’d heard Barry science-speak about once upon a time popped into her mind, and Felicity wondered which one would be the easiest to smuggle without any clearance level. 

“You do still have a Level 7 clearance. Just about higher than anyone else here, maybe apart from Marshal Digg.” 

“Oliver,” Felicity sighed weakly. “Oliver, I just saw about three thousand people get crushed by a giant swordfish-shaped sea monster. I’m not actually sure how I came to be back here, I haven’t had a solid hit of caffeine in about three days, and my feet hurt.”

And if he seemed to realize that she was quite literally leaning against the side of the lift at that moment, Felicity didn’t judge. She was too tired for her usual sarcastic banter. 

She wanted food. And sleep. And she wanted her J-TECH lab. She wasn’t picky about the order. 

But there was a presence at her shoulder that hadn’t been, and Oliver said, “Should I get you to the Muck?” 

Ah, yeah, the Muck. Built to feed some five hundred people twenty four hours a day and the favorite hangout of several people that Felicity was pretty sure she’d either vomit or faint upon seeing. 

“No, just,” Felicity said. “I just need to sit down, I think. Someplace quiet.” 

Silence filled the lift, but it wasn’t as uncomfortable as it had been. Felicity let Oliver take most of her weight as she leaned into his side. She didn’t even know where they were going, but she didn’t particularly care. 

“Are you okay?” 

Felicity closed her eyes for longer than she had been. “Not really.”

His hands on her arms were very warm. Warmer and rougher than she remembered, cause she had a very vivid memory of her trying to yank the cup of coffee out of his hands. 

And, also, Oliver’s hands were ginormous. How had she never noticed?

Felicity’d wager that she could put her hand, which was not a particularly petite hand, up against the palm of his hand and find out that her fingers barely made it to his outermost knuckle.  

“I have something for you,” Oliver said. Felicity was almost asleep against his side, but his deep voice jolted her back into consciousness. “But you have to close your eyes.” 

“Not a problem, boss,” Felicity said. “Way ahead of you.” 

It was a mistake, though, because with her eyes closed all she could feel was the movement of the lift and the way that Oliver’s hands smoothed and soothed their way down her sides which was _not_ what she needed to be thinking about when she was prone to random bouts of monologuing. 

The lift stopped. Felicity, just to make Oliver feel more confident, slapped a hand over her eyes. And, impressing even herself, she didn’t even peek. 

Oliver’s rough hands led her, wherever they were. After a time they stilled and he ran his hands from her sides up to her hands that were over her face. 

They were in J-TECH. 

And oh, holy god, were those _new_ holoscreens? 

“You did this?” Felicity asked. All of her equipment had been upgraded. All of it. Not only upgraded, but fully, properly installed. LOCCENT in Seattle hadn’t had this tech. Hell, Babs didn’t have this tech. Her servers had been upgraded. 

It was like candyland. If candyland required about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of funding from Moira Queen. 

Speaking of. “You never did tell me about your mother.” 

If she hadn’t known him as well, Felicity would have missed the look of guilt that flashed across his face. But she’d been gone for some time, everything was new again. She knew that it was out of place.

She’d often guessed why Moira Queen hadn’t chased her out of any Shatterdome on the Golden Mile, or why Felicity’s reputation in J-TECH had remained in-tact. 

“It hardly matters,” Oliver started. “She’s reneged on her stance about you developing Jaeger Tech since Seattle.” 

Felicity’s hand stopped in front of her new monitors, and she turned to Oliver. “Seattle?” 

His shoulders were hunched. Defensive. Blocking her off in the way that he did. 

Felicity hated it. “Oliver.” 

“It’s not a big deal,” Oliver said, obviously trying to appease her. 

“ _Oliver_ ,” Felicity tried again. 

There was a long moment of silence in which Felicity and Oliver had a silent battle of which person could out-stubborn each other. 

“Seattle didn’t have the shelters it was supposed to,” Oliver started. He didn’t turn to look at her. “They waylaid the supplies meant to build the bunkers so that they could start work on the Anti-Kaiju Wall next year.”  

Felicity’s mouth dropped open, completely forgetting her upgrades. 

It was obviously true that Felicity had wondered why Moira hadn’t tried to come after her. She’d been… very persuasive when it came to Ivo. Felicity had questions to ask Oliver when she wasn’t dead on her feet, but at the moment, Felicity didn’t have near enough energy to talk about Moira Queen’s sins. 

“There used to be laughter, around here, you know,” Oliver said, coming to take her hands with his. 

Felicity was still hung up on the whole Moira Queen ordeal, but he had her attention. 

“It stopped,” he continued after a time. “This Shatterdome used to sing down on the launch bay and in the Muck and it ran like a perfected machine. We’ve survived the last couple months, but nowhere near what we used to be.” 

“I don’t think anyone’s had an easy couple months,” Felicity sighed. But then, she turned to Oliver and said, “I keep your secrets.” 

Oliver smiled. 

And, against what she expected, Felicity smiled, too. 

“Can I help you get somewhere, for now?” Oliver asked. “The Muck? Marshall Digg? The girl’s quarters?” 

“Yes, and yes,” Felicity sighed, but she allowed herself to be dragged away from her new toys. She knew that she needed sleep, and soon, and probably a good meal and a shower, too. 

So she got back into the lift with Oliver Queen and headed down to the officer’s quarters. 

Most of the people in the Stardome had communal showers. There were male and female showers, of course, and unisex showers that in general were more private in single-stalls, but those usually had a wait list on them about two days long. 

Oliver Queen and Tommy Merlyn, however, had apparently somehow bribed their way into having a small private shower in their shared quarters. 

If Felicity had any more energy, she would have asked Thea Queen to find out who was their black market dealer.

And if it was Sara Lance, Felicity was going to _riot_. 

But she showered, anyway. She was a J-TECH engineer, not a saint. She’d intended for her shower to be quick, but she ended up standing underneath the hot water for almost seven minutes. 

In the Stardome that was practically cause for the death penalty. 

When Felicity stepped out, she found that standard issue shirt and sweats had been pushed under the closed door.

She kicked her filthy clothing on the bathroom floor into a ball and tied them in a knot. If they could be salvaged, she’d like to hang onto that old jacket, but it might just be easier to burn them. 

Actually the more she thought about it, the more Felicity was a-okay with burning the damn thing so she’d never have to see it again. 

But when she stepped out with her hair wet and the shirt sticking to her sides, she had a view of Oliver pushing his and Tommy’s bunks together. 

Great view. She loved that view. It was all muscly and nice. 

“Tommy’s offered to sleep up in the men’s quarters for tonight,” Oliver suggested, spreading threadbare blankets and pillows out so they covered both bunks. “I told him I’d probably do the same—”

Felicity flomped down onto the bunk so she landed squarely in the middle and was too tired to care that she hit the frame of one bunk somehow. “Remind me to find something to bribe you both with when I can think.” 

She thought she heard Oliver laugh, somewhere behind her. 

But behind the sudden silence and comfort, something odd ticked inside Felicity’s chest. Usually she had Babs or Sara or the dozen other girls that were unfortunate enough to get stuck in the girl’s quarters.  

“Oliver,” Felicity said, reaching back for him. “Don’t go. Please.” 

He stopped and swiveled around in a way that might have been hilarious to her were she not moments away from collapsing into exhaustion-induced oblivion, but his face was full of caution. “Are you sure?” 

Felicity wiggled her way more towards the edge of the bed, his bed, and firmly planted her face into a pillow. 

And, oddly enough, she could actually hear the conflict in his thoughts as if he had pulled a page out of her book and had babbled them aloud. But he wasn’t the resident J-TECH mastermind, and his name was not Felicity Smoak. 

Felicity heard no movement from him and sighed, exasperated. “Oliver, I’m fully giving you permission to spend the night next to me in your own freakin’ bed so that I might actually be able to sleep. It’s sharing a bed. Two consenting adults. It’s not like I’m setting up a safe word.” 

All of this was mumbled into a pillow, because she had reached that nirvana-like state of mind where her words were enunciated and precise like when her mother used to get short with her when she fried another motherboard in the garage. 

But the other side of the bed sank, so Felicity knew that Oliver had at least consented to laying down. Cause being who he was, Felicity thought that he might have slept on the floor, and she had no idea when the floor had last been _cleaned_. 

“I wouldn’t have slept on the floor,” he scoffed, amused. “I’m sure I would have found enough of Tommy’s things to make bedding of some kind.” 

“Oliver,” Felicity laughed. It was drowned out by a yawn, though, because Felicity could already feel her mind shutting down. It was the weight of his side against her back that did it. “Oliver.” 

“Felicity,” he said back. And then, quieter, “You’re remarkable.” 

“Thank you for remarking on it,” Felicity said. But then she fell asleep. 


	4. That One Time Oliver Queen Won a Bet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver nodded, too. “That’d probably be for the best.” 
> 
> “Which part,” Felicity asked. “The part about me kissing you or the part about me taking my own life out of embarrassment. Or the part about me building mass weapons of destruction.”

“Don’t touch my stuff,” Felicity pointed behind her, where she knew Barbara was already elbow-deep in cords. 

“Bitch, it is not my fault that your set-up is a complete shithole,” came Barbara’s voice. “Seriously, who set this up, I need to speak with them.” 

Felicity watched Tommy and Oliver talk like she was watching two very suspicious characters leave an unmarked package at a train station. But all the while she still managed to scold Babs. “You don’t get to play with my new toys before I do, there’s rules.” 

That spotless J-TECH lab that she had seen yesterday? Gone. Courtesy of Felicity’s very special brand of perfectionist and one red-haired LOCCENT Officer otherwise known as Barbara Gordon. 

And Roy Harper, he had done his share of damage too. 

Now all of J-TECH was a mess of wires and monitors and her storage equipment. 

“You snooze, you lose,” Babs said, taking out a jumble of cords, examining them for half a second before tossing them high over her shoulder. “Oh, is that an L15 Corsair Hydro cooling system? They haven’t even _released that yet_.” 

Even Sara Lance and Dick Grayson had been spotted hoisting things over their shoulders. It seemed like half the Stardome had come to help Felicity completely dismantle and then re-assemble J-TECH. 

“I got something for you,” whispered Sara. 

She was holding a thin black object in her open palm as she looked suspiciously over their shoulders. 

The pretty blonde Jaeger Pilot gestured towards Felicity to come closer, away from the others.

“Sara,” Felicity said. “You didn’t have to.” 

“Nah,” Sara said. “Babs wouldn’t shut up about it while you were gone, and I managed to trade Thea Queen.” 

Felicity looked down and jumped. “ _No_ ,” she started. “You found _lipstick_? I haven’t seen a decent shade of lipstick for like, four years.”

Sara shrugged. “My empire spans the masses,” she said, and clapped Felicity on the back. It was lucky that Felicity didn’t go flying. Damn, Lance. “Good to have you back, girl.” 

The rest of the morning was spent trying to make sense of the utter war zone that J-TECH had become. And frankly, Felicity had a sneaking suspicion that Tommy and Roy had more fun ripping things apart, even when those things didn’t need to be ripped apart. 

And it helped, a bit, having her hands busy with something real. Felicity couldn’t say that things were all completely back to normal; she still jumped when Barbara dropped a heavy metal casing for the monitors and had to spend the next fifteen minutes with her head between her knees. 

But, J-TECH, J-TECH was home base. Nothing could touch her at home base. 

Marshall Digg called down through the comms at one point, asking her to come up to his office, which Felicity did. 

She expected some harsh words and maybe a reprimand, and she got them, but not for the reasons she first thought. “I was more than ready to defend your honor, Miss Smoak,” said Digg, with an amused expression on his face and his arms crossed while he leaned against the front of his desk. “But before I knew it you had made up your mind.” 

Felicity felt the tension drain out of her back. Same old Shatterdome. Same old Marshall Digg. “Sorry, sir.” 

“Don’t you ‘sorry, sir’ me, Miss Smoak,” he said, scrunching up his face in a way that told Felicity that he was attempting to be stern, and he just didn’t have that in him. “I expect this Shatterdome to be running the way it should be by the time we do our monthly checklist in a week.” 

“Of course, sir,” Felicity said, in her equally ‘I’m being completely serious this is my _serious face_ ’ tone. 

Digg nodded, seriously. And then he swept Felicity up in a brief and yet fierce hug that was completely inappropriate for a Shatterdome Marshall and his left hand J-TECH Project Lead, but did that stop the Marshall? 

No, it did not. 

Felicity smiled all the way down to J-TECH. 

J-TECH was empty, this time, most of the damage that had been done by a handful of idiots had been cleared away. Felicity could hear Barbara bitching into the comms already and knew that all of her little circle had probably gone back to their usual work. 

She opened the panels to the outside world and let the sunset illuminate the hard lines and shining metal.  

Felicity inhaled deep and even, as the alarm for the lift pinged at her workstation ten feet away. 

She turned to see Oliver heading in with his arms full of what appeared to be the Muck’s finest dinner. 

Oh, that reminded her, she was going to try and find some actual beef for Marshall Digg. 

Oliver handed her a metal cup filled with what she supposed must be the Muck’s brand of coffee. It smelled slightly more like gasoline than the good kind he had once tried to bribe her with. 

Felicity took it, all the while having one arm wrapped around herself while they looked out on Starling City’s coastline through the open panels. “You doing okay?”

“Not really,” Felicity said. “But I’m doing better than I was.” 

It was a lie, of course. With her return to J-TECH came her return to the lifeblood of the Stardome. And with that, came the confirmation that so many people she had known in Seattle had died, and more and more incoming lists of casualties and damages flooded their servers. Felicity had a bad taste in her mouth. 

Oliver just stood like his spine had turned to stone, shoulder to shoulder with her. His stance was rigid, feet apart. If Felicity hadn’t known better, she’d say he was afraid. Nervous. Uncomfortable, maybe? 

But he’d never been so uncomfortable around her, before. “Say, Mr. Queen?” she tried. 

His thousand yard stare got jerked back to the here and now. “Hmm?” 

Felicity scratched her fingers over the surface of her coffee cup, fingernails screeching along like nails on a silent chalkboard. “Permission for a public display of affection?” 

His eyes went wide, and they glanced down at her lips. He said quietly, “Permission granted.”

But Felicity bravely ignored the fact that his thoughts immediately went to her lips. Though, if she wasn’t going to run that through her brain about a billion times before she fell asleep, you were out of your mind. Instead she sank herself into his side and tucked her arms in close to her chest. 

Oliver went still, but his arm came down around her shoulders and tugged Felicity closer. 

The next day was much of the same, waking up in the Girl’s Quarters between Babs and Sara. Immediately down to J-TECH. Muck, J-TECH, Muck, LOCCENT, rinse, repeat until she was so tired she could hardly stand. 

Sometimes Felicity could remember falling asleep at her station in J-TECH, only to wake up in Oliver’s empty bed. There was a feeling against her skin like she had spent the night curled against someone’s back, in a place of safety. 

But when she awoke in the morning, Oliver was nowhere to be found. 

And it hurt, a bit, the way that it sat so strangely in her chest. And to not find Oliver in the Muck for breakfast, or in LOCCENT or in J-TECH, and to have Tommy just shrug his shoulders and say he didn’t know anything. 

Oliver started disappearing for hours on end, to the point where Felicity could count the amount of time she actually saw him in minutes on one hand. 

And that wasn’t counting the words she spoke to him. 

“Hey,” Felicity finally asked, after a few days of noting the strange behavior. In the Muck, Tommy and Sara and Babs all turned to look at her sitting at the end of the table. “What’s going on with Oliver?” 

She was staring at the counter on the wall above the entranceway. For thirty seconds it counted the number of days since the last Kaiju attack— eleven. For the second thirty second window of the minute, it showed the time in four different timezones. 

And Oliver had missed yet another meal. 

Tommy looked around the Muck, like he hadn’t noticed the Oliver-shaped hole on his left side. “He’s probably just busy dealing with his mother,” Tommy said. “Seattle threw the PPDC into an almighty shitstorm, to use his words.” 

Felicity knew that. She spent hours scrolling through the alerts at her station. And knowing that Moira Queen was at least partially responsible made something twist in her gut. 

Cause, even if Felicity didn’t like her, Moira had to have had a reason to switch the funding to the Wall Project. Right?

“Last time I saw him was down in the Rig,” said Sara. The Rig was where Jaeger pilots and trainees did their drills and where they tested compatibility between two pilots. “Looked like he wasn’t gonna stop for a couple hours.” 

Felicity felt like her happiness had keeled over and died. The one part of her that had remained blissful was the knowledge that Oliver was keeping an eye on her— not in some romance novel way, but that she had a friend who knew what it was like to need help staying afloat.

But, this? This screamed that he was trying to put as much distance between himself and her as possible. 

“Lissa?” Babs asked from on her left. 

Felicity snapped back to reality and realized she must have drifted off. “I’m fine,” she said quickly. “I was just worried, he’s been acting kinda strange the last couple days.”

“Well, yeah,” said Sara. “Nearly fell out of Neural Link, didn’t anybody tell you?” 

Tommy looked like he wanted to kick Sara in the nose. “No, we didn’t tell her, idiot.” 

Felicity looked from one end of their group to another, arms crossed, and waiting. But even as she did, one by one, they couldn’t meet her gaze. Tommy Merlyn was so close to caving that Felicity swore she could hear him swallow from five feet away. 

“I had a bet going,” Babs offered. 

“ _Babs_ ,” chorused the whole table.

“What do you mean, ‘fell out of neural link’,” Felicity asked. “Why, is something wrong with the Gambit?” 

Through a mouth full of food, Tommy shook his head and tried to swallow a bite that was too big to swallow. “Nah,” he said, “Gambit’s fine, something just happened last week.” 

“Is that why you agreed to the bet with me?” Babs asked, eyes narrowing in a way that screamed danger for anyone that really knew her or her past transgressions. “I didn’t know you had access to inside information.” 

“What,” Tommy asked. “Once I week I share a consciousness with the man, are we forgetting that? Is that something that is routinely forgotten around here?” 

“I’m never making a bet with you again,” Barry said.

“Tommy,” Felicity asked. She looked at him through the top of her glasses. 

“Okay,” Tommy said, his lips curling up, “So I cave easily in the face of intimidating blondes with upper body strength, who cares?”

Felicity and Sara’s gazes met, each trying to decide who he meant. Felicity rather thought Tommy meant Sara, as her upper body strength was sadly lacking. Dick Grayson put his foot in front of the wheel of Babs’ wheelchair to most likely prevent her from rolling around to Tommy’s side. 

“Babs,” Felicity asked. “How long have you had this bet going?” 

She shrugged. “About a month after you left. Why, you want in?” 

“No,” Felicity said, not even knowing what the bet was about. “But how long has Tommy known about it?” 

The entire group turned to look at Tommy. Recognition dawned on Barry’s face, and then on Sara’s. 

Tommy pointed a finger in Barbara’s direction. “About a week before Seattle.” He paused. “Right before Oliver slipped out of alignment. Oh. _Oh_.”

“Weren’t you just saying something about sharing a consciousness with the man?” Roy asked, amused as always with Tommy’s rambling mouth.

“I think I’ve made a mistake.”

“I don’t think anyone here is anywhere near surprised,” answered Sara.

Tommy glared at her. “I always knew you were a bad influence.”

“Again, no one is surprised.” Sara rested her chin on her palm with her elbow against the table.

Tommy shoveled another bite into his mouth, and another for good measure. But Felicity, Babs, and Sara were all still looking at him like they expected him to explode in an interesting way. 

“Oh, come on,” he said through mashed potatoes. “My life and my legacy, you are so much smarter than that.” 

Sara turned to look at Felicity and said, “I’ll break his nose if you give me that pair of black flats you have in our quarters.” 

“Impossible,” Felicity said, though she kept her attention on Tommy. “Those flats are the last I have for non-standardized clothing, and plus, there are a number of people who would pay _me_ to break his nose.” 

“You are so cute for trying to deny the way Oliver feels about you,” said Tommy, ducking like he was expecting to get hit. 

“Oliver?” Felicity sputtered. “No, no way.” 

It’s not like she had got teary eyed a couple times during her stint in Seattle because she saw his name in a memo. Well, okay, she had, but Barbara Gordon was going to know that over Felicity’s dead body.

“It wasn’t even my idea,” Tommy insisted. “But _come on_ , he cut some of the cables in the Queen’s Gambit so that Digg would have to make you come back!”

Felicity’s laughter died in her throat. 

“I love you,” Tommy said quickly. “It wasn’t even my idea I’m sorry _ow, I need that hand, Barbara._ ” 

Oliver knew about the bet. Oliver had been so shocked by the knowledge that everyone thought he had a thing for her that it had forced him out of drift alignment. 

Felicity was going to jump off the Stardome and she was going to erase her very existence before doing so. No one would remember Felicity Smoak, J-TECH Program Head. 

It’s not like her mother was around to miss her. 

“You know,” Barbara cleared her throat and said. “I think I hear Colonel Lance coming.” 

Both Tommy and Sara looked around the Muck for entirely different reasons. Sara, because Colonel Lance was her father. Tommy looked around in a state of mild panic. “What?” he asked. “Where.” 

But Felicity didn’t hear, because at that moment she could see Oliver heading into the Muck. It’d been only hours since she’d seen him, but she could already see how worn out he was. He looked exhausted, like he had just been beating a punching bag half to death for two hours.

Oliver spotted Felicity, sitting in the middle of their chatting and lively group, and Felicity saw how it stopped him in his tracks. 

Felicity could see it in his face: guilt, embarrassment, a tiny bit of fear. He stopped dead in his tracks and turned around and went back the way he came. 

Felicity pushed past Tommy and Grayson and went out the entrance to the Muck, turned the corner that she had seen Oliver turn. 

“Oliver,” Felicity called, going after him down the hallway. 

He was really upset, Felicity realized. His shoulders were up and stiff, his walk was almost mechanical. His hands clenched and unclenched the way they had when Moira had come. 

“Oliver, wait,” Felicity called. He climbed into the lift and she had to sprint to catch up to him. 

And then they were in the lift, alone. 

The doors to the lift slid shut, but Felicity didn’t turn to look at them. She didn’t move to press the button for J-TECH, or to LOCCENT, or to any other floor in the Stardome.

There was a long stretch of silence. Oliver looked like he was in actual, physical pain, and Felicity couldn’t anymore cross the three feet in between them than she could climb in a Jaeger and hi-tail it over to Japan. “I’m gonna stop the lift,” she said quietly. 

With hands shaking, she pushed the red button on the panel that cut power to the lift. It was technically there in case a Kaiju attack on the Stardome was eminent. 

When she turned back to Oliver, he was wearing his questioning eyebrow raise look that she hated. “Not to entrap you, or anything,” Felicity said. “You know, in case you don’t want to be around me, but it also cuts power to the feed.” 

She gestured up to the camera. Felicity had some doubts that Barbara would do anything mischievous, but the hair on the back of her neck relaxed, knowing they didn’t have an audience. 

“It’s actually a flaw in the system,” she rambled, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “We can’t actually figure out why it does that, it might just be a shit set up, but I guess I haven’t had time to fix it with everything else that’s happened—”

“Felicity,” Oliver interjected. 

“No,” Felicity said, holding up a hand. “I get it. You don’t have to say anything, and I’ll go back and make them understand that you were just worried about a friend, who needed it.”

The sudden space between them that hadn’t even been there before she had transferred, and the way that his hands were clenching and unclenching like he wanted to bust out of the lift if he had to do it one punch at a time killed her. Somehow. 

Felicity got it. She might have been blonde, but she was not that blonde. 

And it kinda, really goddamn hurt. 

“I just,” Felicity said, scuffing her boot on the ground. “Why didn’t you tell me you fell out of alignment?”

Falling out of alignment was a serious thing, it was like Jaeger Program 101, it was something that could bench a Jaeger Pilot for years until they could solve the issue. And, currently, the Stardome barely had enough Jaeger Pilots to pilot one Jaeger, the Queen’s Gambit. 

Dick Grayson and Babs had been a good team, years back, but Babs lost the use of everything from the waist down, and it didn’t look like Dick was compatible with anyone this side of the Pacific. Sara Lance hadn’t even tried getting back into a Jaeger since Laurel had died and the Black Canary had been dismantled for scrap and repair.  

“But, I mean,” Felicity started, pacing back and forth around the lift. “We could do some tests.” 

“Felicity,” Oliver tried. 

“We could figure out why you’re falling out of alignment, I’m sure Tommy would be willing to help,” she said, starting to think. It’d been a long time since she had done the math for the drift system, but it was a lot like reading an old, favorite book. Eventually it just all came back. “I think I could rig up a drift machine outside of the Queen’s Gambit. It could be a lot of things that would be a very simple fix.” 

“ _Felicity_ ,” Oliver said again, exasperated. “I fell out of alignment because they announced over the comms that you were Acting Marshall.” 

Her brain went dead. Felicity had to drop kick it across the imaginary Muck somewhere in her head to get it going again, and actually remember at one point after Clawhook she had been appointed Acting Marshall. “Oh.” 

Oliver nodded, grabbing her elbow to steady her suddenly wobbly feet. 

“But,” Felicity started. “What does that have to do with the bet that Babs started?” 

“The bet?” Oliver asked, a smile springing up on his face that was real and genuine and left Felicity trying not to go cross-eyed to see it better. “You mean the bet on how long it was going to take me to fly a helicopter up to Seattle and transport you back to the Stardome?” 

“Yeah,” Felicity said, numbly. “That one.”

“You mean the bet that I’ve known about for about three months?” Oliver asked. 

“Yeah,” Felicity said. 

He exhaled, and smiled again. Felicity felt all the tension that had been in her not three minutes ago flood out in an awesome way. “I share a consciousness with him once a week. Do people just forget that, or something?” 

She could hear Tommy in his voice when he said it, too. “So you don’t, like, not want to be around me but feel responsible cause I’m kinda shaken and your mother was the reason Seattle was so unprepared?”

“Felicity,” Oliver said and he smiled that smile and it wasn’t fucking fair the way he said her name. “Why the hell would I think that.” 

Felicity shrugged. “I don’t see you during the day at all, I didn’t know if it was something I had done. Someone gets me to yours and Tommy’s room during the night but is gone by morning.” 

Oliver nodded very seriously. “There’s obviously a masked vigilante wandering around Starling City safely transporting snoring blondes to bed.” 

Felicity tried not to laugh, she really did. But she still needed to know, and maybe Oliver saw that. His smile faded and his hands dropped from where they went to grab hers. 

He seemed to search her face as he struggled for something to say. 

And for once, it was very nice to struggle to stop her words once she started instead of struggling to find them in the first place. 

“There was,” Oliver said slowly. “There was a lot of screaming. A lot of death. A forty thousand pound Kaiju was ripping through Seattle like a hot knife through lukewarm butter and all I could hear was your voice along with the live feeds, and you sounded terrified.” 

She really, honestly, did not need a reminder of it, but swallowed whatever it was that rose up in her throat. She could still hear her own voice in her head handing out orders and sending on the alerts they got from Romeo Blue. 

“When you were there,” Oliver said instead, straightening his spine even as he said it. “It just made me realize, how much I need you here.”

Well, Felicity thought, technically the like five hundred people needed her here. She was gone for like six months and suddenly everything was chaos. 

But she was still pleased with the sentiment.

Felicity nodded. “I’m gonna kiss you. And you are gonna stop me right now if I’m being an insensitive asshole and I’m reading you all wrong and I am going to step out of this lift and I am going to plummet down like three hundred feet and ‘here lies Felicity Smoak, she invented pretty cool weapons for giant robots occasionally’. Or something, who knows. I might go build a plasma cannon out of spite.”  

Oliver nodded, too. “That’d probably be for the best.” 

“Which part,” Felicity asked. “The part about me kissing you or the part about me taking my own life out of embarrassment. Or the part about me building mass weapons of destruction.” 

Oliver laughed and laced his hands together behind her back. Despite this they still weren’t flush together, but it was enough to be intimate. “Did you really stop the lift to stop Barbara Gordon from seeing this?” 

Felicity frowned. “You don’t know her like I do. She’s like Tommy, but she uses her superpowers for evil.” 

“So she’s exactly like Tommy,” Oliver said as Felicity kissed his cheek, and then his chin, and then in the space in between the two. “There’s not even a question about it, both of them are going to go form the evil league of tech geeks and Jaeger Pilots.” 

She moved to the other side of his face, kissing his temple and his cheek and his jawline and chin again so that she was kissing everywhere but his lips. 

Each time she did, Oliver leaned into the contact, pulling his hands to rest against her back. And each time she did, Felicity saw that he closed his eyes and smiled, like a private smile, like the kind of smile she would wear alone in the lift after he had teased her when she had first gotten here all those years ago. 

He continued to babble on, which was oddly funny. She thought some kissing might actually shut him up. “Oh my god, shhhh.”

“Oh,” he said, laughing again. “I’m sorry, am I interrupting something?”

So, apparently, kissing someone just to spite them was something she was entirely willing to do. Who knew?

Oliver freed his arms so he could put his big hands on either side of her head and kiss her so hard he might as well have sucked the oxygen straight out of her brain. 

On top of the fact that he let them fall backwards so they were more up against the lift wall, and Felicity went with him, falling so that they were flush together from hip to toes in a tangle of standard issue flight suits and boots.

After which it was a battle of trying not to bump noses or clash teeth, which meant it was mostly Felicity biting on his lower lip and then watching Oliver as he licked at it with his tongue. And then Felicity figuring out that she really hadn’t appreciated the taste of Oliver’s skin before.

When there was a sudden and unfortunate lack of lips on her own, Felicity opened her eyes to find Oliver looking at her like he had just done something he shouldn’t have, waiting to see if she would be angry. “What the hell was that?” Felicity asked. “I wasn’t done, Mr. Queen.” 

“Oliver,” he said, out of breath. “Say it, please.” 

Felicity kissed his chin. Perhaps not the most arousing thing she could have done, but it felt right. It had an amount of certainty that she liked. “Oliver.” 

Oliver closed his eyes, pleased. “Mmm.” 

Felicity laughed as he dragged her back for another kiss. “Are you faint with arousal?”

“I may fall over,” he conceded, managing to keep a straight face. “My need for you is so great.” 

“I’m gonna _swoon_ ,” Felicity giggled. 

And then Oliver really _did_ kiss her again, and Felicity felt like maybe, sorta, that swooning thing might actually happen, but it was mostly because all the blood had stopped going to her brain. Who knew?

“J-TECH,” Oliver said, finally. “Hit the button and restart the lift.” 

“You overestimate my ability to hit a button I can’t see,” Felicity said, and she yelped when Oliver nipped at her wrist in revenge. “And no, do you know how many cameras there are in my lab?”

“Where, then?” Oliver asked, but his grip loosened and his hands slid down her back and lowered her to the floor. “I mean, if you’d like to. If you feel like this is where this should progress.” 

“Tremendously bad decision,” Felicity said, feeling around for the red button. “Kudos for the whole asking for consent first, though, but yeah, horribly bad decision, giving me the opportunity to hilariously fuck this up.”

She managed to hit the button, sending them upwards. 

Felicity looked back at Oliver and readjusted her glasses. He was breathing hard. 

“Bed?” Oliver guessed with a nod. 

“Bed,” Felicity agreed. 

Awesome thing about standard-issue jumpsuits? They are very similar for everyone involved. Makes it much easier to fumble around as you are being marched backwards through the hallway. 

But standard-issue boots are still a pain in the ass with too many complicated knots that had Felicity hopping up and down on one foot, trying to peel her boots off one at a time while Oliver grabbed her by the waist to keep them steady. 

In the end, they ended up on Oliver’s bed, twisted in the covers and testing the limits of two standard Stardome bunks pushed together. 

The first and second time were slow and controlled. Intimate. 

The third time, Oliver and Felicity laid on their sides as Oliver slipped in from behind when she was still wet from the last two times. Their pace was slow and controlled this time, as well, until Felicity guided his hand between her thighs and pushed back onto him and made them go faster. 

Felicity's hand landed on his hip, getting better grip so she could push back against him more, making his thrusts go deeper and into just the right spot. 

And she tried biting on her free hand to keep from crying out as Oliver thrusted harder and she got closer to coming. It didn't particularly work, less so when Oliver flicked her clit, but the metal walls of their quarters were surprisingly thin. Even Oliver couldn't contain himself, once or twice, which Felicity was gonna be damn sure to remind him of later. 

The angle that Oliver was going had Felicity close after a handful of quickening thrusts. Between that and his fingers, Felicity upped their pace until she came. 

Oliver came right after. 

Felicity’s brain was kinda mush, after that, but it was a good mush. It was a very good mush. 

“Oliver,” Felicity said, half asleep. 

“Mmm,” was the only reply. 

“Turn the light off,” Felicity said, pointing at the lamp that was across the room. 

Oliver threw a pillow at it. It worked, but it didn’t mean that Felicity didn’t hear the sound of a lightbulb breaking.

The summer-camp alarm bell from hell began to toll, the auxiliary lights turned the entire room orange. The Stardome that had probably just settled down into bed jolted awake. 

“Ugh, really?” Felicity asked. She shoved the comm that had been on the table next to the bed into her ear while Oliver dropped her pillow over his head and groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, boy!
> 
> When I started this AU I really had no idea where it might go: I had a few scenes in my head and the idea that Felicity Smoak would totally build giant robots. Thank you all so much for your kudos and comments, I assure you I have read every single one. 
> 
> (and also my love for Barbara x Dick is immeasurable and I would give a large amount of money to have them show up in Arrow, so please excuse my total loss of control for disabled Jaeger Co-pilots)
> 
> Val (Ambrosia)


End file.
